Footage Cut From Episodes

I've heard Seinfeld used to come in at 35-40 minutes and was trimmed to fit into the half hour time block. Has anyone seen or have more information on this, and know if potential DVD's could include them?

Hmm, I doubt this. All sitcoms are written to be 22 minutes long, and are usually broken up into "acts" that will be divided by commercials. Several hours of footage is shot for each episode, but I doubt it'd be edited down to 35-40 minutes, and then edited *again* down to 22.

There are a couple minutes cut when the episodes make the move to syndication, to allow a little more time for commercials.

John

jtwernbold:

<< "PMthruROTJ" wrote:

Hmm, I doubt this. All sitcoms are written to be 22 minutes long, and are usually broken up into "acts" that will be divided by commercials. >> -----------------------------

Actually, PMthruROTJ was correct, sort of. Many of the first cuts of "Seinfeld" did come in way over the programmed 22 minutes and had to be trimmed. Usually, the first thing to be excised was Jerry's monologue, but often the cuts had to go far deeper than that.

Sometimes when you see an establishing shot of a building with some expository piece of dialogue underneath, that was a means of relaying some important piece of information from a scene that had to be cut.

Someimes, an episode ran so long that there was just no way to trim it down to 22 minutes and they found it was easier to just make a two-parter out of it. This was the case, I believe, with the Keith Hernadez episode(s), and a couple of others.

Regarding your question whether this cut footage could find its way onto DVD... simple answer: no.

Each episode of Seinfeld is different, but most of them remain remarkably intact from the broadcast version. Watching them side by side, they cut "The Maid" by only about 15 seconds, (where Elaine stuck her foot in the door of the old woman neighbor who died: "She didn't perchance have a 212 phone number?") It was a good cut, and I think what was left was made stronger :)

Seinfeld saves time by running credits at the tail end of the last slot, not just during the final bumper. When it was broadcast, only a few credits ran at the end of the last slot. Now, they're running credits 2 minutes before the slot ends!

John Twernbold wrote: